How To Install The Toilet Flange

After the waste line from the main line to the toilet bowl location have been installed, the toilet flange will have to be installed before the toilet bowl can be installed. The toilet flange can be made from metal or a plastic. If your plumbing is cast iron then the pipe will require something they call a lead bend and a brass toilet flange. If you have PVC plumbing pipes the PVC pipe will use a PVC toilet bowl flange. The flange will attach to the drainage pipe that is below the floor and also to the inside of the toilet flange.

Before the toilet flange can be installed the first thing that need to be done is to make sure that the toilet rough-in measurements are correct. The toilet rough-in consists of two different measurements. The center of the toilet flange must be 12″ inches from the finished wall for a standard 12″ center toilet bowl to fit. The second measurement is from the center of the toilet flange to the side wall. This measurement is only necessary when you are installing a toilet in a location where there will be walls on each side of the toilet bowl.  When the plumber is roughing the house they will make sure this measurement is correct so when the time comes to install the toilet flange everything will line up and the toilet will be able to be installed without any problems.

Once the rough-in measurements have been checked and everything is confirmed to be correct, the toilet bowl flange is now ready to be installed.. The first thing that will need to be done is to determine what type of flange that will need to be used. Once the type of flange that will be needed has been determined , the next step will is to then cut the pipe that is coming through the floor to the correct height. The pipe coming though the floor can be cut with an inside pipe cutter if the stub out piece of pipe cannot be removed from the plumbing fitting. Most of the time the rough plumber will not glue in the piece sticking out from the truck line. The plumber will do this so when the toilet flange needs to be installed when setting the toilet, the stub can just be pulled out from the main line and then cut down to size before installing the toilet flange. This is a whole lot easier then using an inside pipe cutter.

Now that the pipe that is sticking though the floor is cut to the correct height the toilet flange can now be connected to the pipe. The toilet bowl flange can be glued to the PVC pipe if the plumbing is PVC Piping. If the plumbing is made from cast iron the flange that will be used will be made to attach to the lead bend or cast iron pipe.. This type of toilet flange will usually get bolted or tightened onto the cast iron pipe. Once the toilet bowl flange is glued or tightened into position the toilet flange now can be screwed to the floor to make sure it stays in place. Now the toilet is ready to be set and the wax ring and the toilet flange bolts can be placed onto the flange so that the toilet bowl can be installed.